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The 61 TEFLIN International Conference, UNS Solo 2014
NEED ANALYSIS IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR NON ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKERS STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 2 SURABAYA
Rizka Safriyani UIN SunanAmpel Surabaya
Abstract:Need analysis is one of the process to assess students need in learning English. It is necessary to be
done so that teacher will create proper learning objectives for their class. This study focuses to investigate the Need Analysis in learning English for Non English Native Speakers Students in learning English at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya. Descriptive Qualitative Research is applied in this research. Moreover, questionnaire, and interview guide are used to collect the data. There are one accelerated classes and one regular classes chosen as the sample. The results show that both of the regular and accelerated students have the same problem in writing and they expect to use this skill in their study. Moreover, they have the same opinion that the most important skill to success after graduation and in their course is speaking and listening skill.
Introduction
Based on the basic assumptions of curriculum development, an analysis of learners’ need is an important thing to design the educational program. 1Kaur (2007) cited by Kayi (2008) stated that developing curriculum will get many challenging problems which directly reflect in teaching and learning process if the teachers do not recognize their students’ need. 2 It shows that the teachers should collect the information of students’ need so that teachers able to design the language learning process based on the students’ need. Need analysis is useful applied for preparing or designing the lesson or course for the students. It lets the teacher recognize what things actually should be consider as the students’ need in language learning. As the important thing in students’ involvement of language learning, need analysis is necessary to investigate the elements of learners need, such as, their objectives, language attitudes, expectations from the course and learners’ habits to design a well-organized curriculum.3 It can be inferred that by doing need analysis, teacher would get a description about their students’ basic skills and their habit. These information will help teachers to set a proper learning objective for their students based on their needs and expectation.
This research focuses to analyze the students’ need in learning English for nonnative speaker at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya. SMP Muhammadiyah 2 is one of the best school at Surabaya. This school has a concern on developing students’ interest not only academically but also non academically. SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya is also famous for Sports Class, Sunday School, Sister School and Talent Class. Sunday school is a program which accommodate students’ interest in learning English and Arabic. Moreover, every year some students from SMP Muhammadiyah 2 always go overseas to have a school visit. They do have a regular class and accelerated class which clearly need different levels of need in learning English. These fact show how English play an important part of the learning activity. There will be a possibility that in the next future, there will be international students for this school. Therefore a research about need analysis for Non English Native Speakers Students in learning English at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya need to be conducted.
This research focuses to discuss about the students’ need in learning English at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya. The purpose of this study will find out the students’ needs in learning English at SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya. This study will be limited to the need of accelerated students and regular students based on the result of the questionnaire given to the students.
Theoretical Background
Ellis and Johnson (1994) added that needs analysis is a method of obtaining a detailed description of learner needs or a group of learner needs. It takes into account the specific purposes for which the learner will use the language, the kind of language to be used, the starting level, and the target level which is to be achieved. Information can be obtained from a range of different people such as company staff, trainers, and the learners themselves. It will have implications for the future training approach. Bachman and Palmer (1996) argued, “Needs analysis or needs assessment, involves the systematic gathering of specific information about the language needs of learners and the analysis of this information for purposes of language syllabus design”.
Graves (2000) further stated that needs analysis is a systematic and on-going process of gathering information about students’ needs and preferences, interpreting the information, and then making course
1Richards, Jack C. Curriculum development in Language Teaching.Cambridge University Press. P.51
2
Kayi, Hayriye. Developing an ESl Curriculum Based on Needs and Situation Analyses: A Case Study. P.30 3Ibid.
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The 61 TEFLIN International Conference, UNS Solo 2014 decisions based on the interpretation in order to meet the needs.
The term “analysis of needs” was originated by Dr. Michael Philip West (1888 – 1973), who was an English language teacher and researcher working extensively in India in the mid-1900s. He asked why learners should learn English and how they should learn English.Needs analysis allows the teacher to know why and how his students are learning the foreign language.
Needs analysis refers to the procedures used to collect information about the needs of learners
(Richards, 2001). A more sophisticated definition is given by Brown (1995): needs analysis refers to “the systematic collection and analysis of all subjective and objective information necessary to define and validate defensible curriculum purposes that satisfy the language learning requirements of students within the context of particular institutions that influence the learning and teaching situation.
In language teaching, learners’ needs and teachers’ need become the central issue of the need analysis process since both play the important role in the learning process. Since the students are the target of the learning process, therefore students need analysis is frequently assessed than teachers need.
Research Method
Descriptive Qualitative Research is applied in this research. Moreover, questionnaire, and interview guide are used to collect the data. There are one accelerated classes and one regular classes chosen as the sample. The questionnaires used are taken from Jack C Richard. Each Student must fill out the questionnaires in English and answer some questions from the interview to strengthen the findings. The data taken from the questionnaires are classified based on the language skill discussed in the questionnaire. Both classes are analyzed separately to see whether there is a different need between an accelerated class and a regular class student. Next, the data are analyzed to get the answer of the research question. The result of the students interview and teachers’ interview are used to strengthen the data taken from the questionnaire.
Findings
The result of this research shows that accelerated students’ of SMP Muhammadiyah 2 Surabaya have difficulty in writing skill. They indicates that writing skill is the most important skill to get success in their course of study.
Chart 1
Students response about important Abilities to success in their course
It can be seen that 39 % students of accelerated class think that writing is the most important abilities to success in their course.
According to the students, using correct punctuation and spelling are very important in writing. In addition, they want to improve their essay writing skill but they have a problem with organizing paragraphs. Regarding to this condition, the teacher should create the curriculum that is focused on those students’ need. While for the reading skill, the material that the students expected to read is Journal article, but they have difficulty on that subject. Moreover they get difficulty in understanding the details of the text. The ability that they want to improve is quick reading. Next, speaking skill is also the most important skill to success in their field after graduation.
How important to success in your course of study are
the following of abilities?
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Moderate
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The 61 TEFLIN International Conference, UNS Solo 2014
Chart 2
Students response about the most important abilities to success in their field after graduation
It can be seen that 36 % students of accelerated class think that the most important abilities to success in their field after graduation is Speaking. They get some difficulties in this skill, for example: in the class they often have trouble in leading class discussions and also they have difficulty in wording. There are 41 % students of accelerated class indicated that they often have difficulties in working with other students on out-of-class projects and having trouble in leading class discussion. Moreover, there are 43 % students of accelerated class indicate that they have difficulties in giving oral presentations and the ability that they want to improve in this skill is communicating effectively with peers in small group discussions, collaborative projects, or out-of-class study groups.
While for the listening skill, most students have trouble in taking effective notes and understanding the lectures because they talk very fast. There are 61 % students of accelerated class indicate that they have problems in understanding lecturers or other students because they talk very fast and their pronunciation are different from they used to hear regularly. Next, the ability that they want to improve in this skill is general listening comprehension.
On the other hand, the result of the regular class shows that they have difficulty in writing skill (32%) so they expected to use writing in their study. There are 48 % students of regular class think that listening and speaking English is the most important abilities to success in their course. While for the listening skill, 40 % of the students have trouble taking effective notes and understanding the lesson because more than one person is speaking in the group of discussion. And the ability that they want to improve is listening to pronunciation /intonation/ stress patterns of New Zealand English.
In addition for writing skill, an object that they want to improve is writing introductions and conclusion, but they have a problem with structuring sentences. Regarding to this condition, the teacher should create the curriculum that focus on those students’ need. For reading skill, the material that the students expected to read is photocopied note but they have difficulty on that subject. There are 44% students of regular class indicated that in reading skill they are expected to read entire reference or text books, photocopied notes, and computer-presented reading materials. Moreover they get difficulty in reading text carefully in order to understand the details of the text. And the ability that they want to improve in this skill is reading quickly.
Almost the students indicated that speaking skill is the most important skill to success after graduation. But in this skill they have difficulty in wording that they want to say quickly.
Chart 3
Students response about students difficulties in speaking
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Often
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How important to success in your field after
graduation are the following of abilities
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Moderate
Low
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The 61 TEFLIN International Conference, UNS Solo 2014 There are 36 % students of regular class indicated that in speaking skill they often have trouble wording what you want to say quickly enough. And the ability that they want to improve is communicating effectively with peers in small group discussions, collaborative projects, or out-of-class study groups.
Chart 4
Students response about students preference about the useful material
There are 45% students of regular class indicated that if they were to take a course to improve their English skills, the most useful is writing introductions and conclusions.
The result of the questionnaire areinline with some questions in the interview process. Generally students give similar answer with what they have stated on the questionnaires. Teachers also give similar comment to their students need, therefore these needs are accommodated through the Sunday School Materials.
Conclusion
The results show that both of the regular and accelerated students have the same problem in writing and they expect to use this skill in their study. Moreover, they have the same opinion that the most important skill to success after graduation and in their course is speaking and listening skill.
Suggestion
Due to the limited number of sample, in the next research, researcher may develop need analysis for students from all grades and also do a research about need analysis for English teacher so that it can give a significance impact to the development of the English Learning Process. Further researcher may work with a study about to what extent the English learning process meet the students need in Learning English.
References
Richards, Jack C. Curriculum development in Language Teaching.Cambridge University Press. P.51 Kayi, Hayriye. Developing an ESl Curriculum Based on Needs and Situation Analyses: A Case Study. P.30 CHOI, Jessie. A Needs Analysis Approach to Self-Access Language Learners: Perspective of Students and
Teachers. p. 268
Curtis, ‘Conducting Market Research Using Primary Data’ http://ag.arizona.edu
Salaria, 2012, ‘Meaning of The Term- Descriptive Survey Research Method’, International Journal of Transformations in Business Management, Vol. No. 1, Issue No. 6, Apr-Jun, http://www.ijtbm.com
High
Moderate
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